Signe Hasso (15 August 1915 – 7 June 2002) was a Swedish-born American actress, writer and composer.

Background

Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson was born in the Kungsholmen parish of Stockholm, Sweden in 1915. Signe Hasso debuted at the prestigiousRoyal Dramatic Theatre in the year 1927 at the age of 12.

Career

In 1933, she made her first film, Tystnadens hus, with German film director/cameraman Harry Hasso, whom she subsequently married. In 1940, she moved to the United States, where she was signed to a contract by RKO Studios, who promoted her as "the next Garbo". She and Hasso divorced in 1941.

Her first role of note was as "Mademoiselle" in Heaven Can Wait (1943). Her other roles during the 1940s included The Seventh Cross (1944), Johnny Angel (1945), The House on 92nd Street (1945), A Scandal in Paris (1946) and A Double Life (1947).

By the 1950s, her Hollywood career had stalled. In 1957, her son and only child was killed in a car accident. From then on, she divided her time between making films in Sweden and acting on stage in New York until she returned to Hollywood in the mid-1960s.

In her later years, Hasso won acclaim for her work as a songwriter and writer, and for her work translating Swedish folk songs into English. In 1977, she wrote her debut novel, Momo, depicting her childhood in interwar Stockholm.

She was also a songwriter. Her second album, Where the Sun Meets the Moon, was released in 1979 and consisted of her own versions of Swedish folk tunes.

She continued acting, her last film being 2000's One Hell of a Guy.

Death

She died in Los Angeles in 2002, aged 86, from pneumonia resulting from lung cancer.

Source: Wikipedia